There's 2 main series of JAD. The completed original trilogy and the in progress JAD2.2 trilogy.

The original trilogy, Just Another Day, Just Another Day 2, and Just Another Day 3, star the Hero Of The Universe Alpha 1 as he saves the universe from a cranky and evil god manifested from the game's mission editor, FRED. Sounds like a weird premise? Don't worry, it only gets weirder from there. It's like FreeSpace meets Monty Python or FreeSpace meets Spaceballs. They are some of my first campaigns, but I think they've held up pretty well.

The new trilogy, Just Another Day 2.21, 2.22 and 2.23 just goes off the rails and never stops. First off, everything suddenly becomes heavily stolen inspired by anime, with an emphasis on Neon Genesis Evangelion, though just about anything and everything gets homaged and referenced.

After vanquishing FRED for a second time in JAD2, aforementioned Hero Of The Universe Alpha 1 himself disappears. Now without any heroes or gods to contain this crazy universe, FRED's demigod slaves, the Beta Testers, want FRED's power for themselves. All that stands before them are a bunch of overconfident teenagers with massively overpowered spaceships.

You've got Holley, the loud-mouthed smart aleck; Delta 1, the pilot extraordinaire with a glass ego; and Epsilon 1, the... some guy. Those three somehow find a way to stop bickering with each other long enough to save the universe.

All rules are thrown out the window, and we're having a blast doing it. A radically transformed mission structure lets you enjoy a beautifully illustrated visual-novel type story to set up the insane and bizarre space sim gameplay. You'll hardly believe some of the things you'll be asked to do! From defeating a multitude of bosses with specific weak points, to buying 10,000 credits worth of tacos, to going on dates with suddenly appearing girls, to eventually exposing conspiracies and finding true power of friendship, determination, and love.

And you will bake cakes.

Even if you're not a fan of anime, I still think you would have fun with JAD2.2. It's just the sort of thing to brighten anyone's day. You don't need to have watched a bunch of anime to get the jokes (but it certainly helps).

Just Another Day 1 + 2 + 3: Special Edition, Rereleased together September 18, 2010Just Another Day 2.21: Released September 23, 2011, Last Updated January 21, 2017Just Another Day 2.21 Original Very Awesome Mission Pack: Released March 31, 2012, now part of the main 2.21 releaseJust Another Day 2.2 Xtreme Arcade: Released December 31, 2013, now part of the main 2.21 releaseJust Another Day 2.22: Released February 22, 2017

But if you are enamored by the high quality work recently showcased here, you could just play JAD2.2 alone. There's not a lot of overlap between the two series, you can probably fill in the missing "plot" yourself.JAD2.21 -> JAD2.22 -> JAD2.23 (not out yet)

If you're really in it for the long haul, you could play it chronologically:JAD1 -> JAD2 -> JAD2.21 -> JAD2.22 -> JAD2.23 (not out yet) -> JAD3

Just Another Day 2.2: Xtreme Arcade is add-on that's just for quick arcade like battles.Just Another Day 2.2: Original Very Awesome Mission/Preview packs are tiny in-between releases to keep the populace happy. They eventually get integrated into the main releases, so don't worry if they suddenly vanish.

Troubleshooting

If you play JAD in one long sitting, the game may... crash. So if headanis stop loading or errors pop up about fileExists or missing masks, don't panic. Just restart the game. Or just take plenty of breaks! (You should be able to do a full in-game episode arc without any problems)

Special Mega Shoutouts

My Main MenSpoon - For all that unpaid testing, feedback, and amazing character art that puts paid games to shameNiffiwan - For all the coding and features that let my wild and crazy ideas take shape

My BP BrosGeneral Battuta - For being a really cool inspirational guy with amazing stories, both fake and trueDarius - For having a rad philosophy for everything

My Other BruhsRedsniper - For having the second best taste in animeHades - For watching all 500 episodes of Naruto in 1 day P.S. Anime is my favorite Star CitizenDahBlount - For being an ubernerdMjn.Mixael - For all those free graphics, even the ones you still owe meAll SCP Coders - For all the great new features

Re: RELEASE - Just Another Day Series

The Disclaimer/Warnings/IndemnificationJust Another Day loves to be edgy, so we use edgy dangerous bleeding edge builds. So to make things slightly easier on you, I have uploaded a hand crafted artisanal build on the installer that should work. If you are brave enough, you can also use nightly builds (warning Jan 21st 2017 nightly won't work!) Once 3.8 comes out, that should be cool too.

If you play JAD in one long sitting, the game may... Crash. If headanis stop loading or errors about fileExists, don't panic. Just restart the game. Or just take plenty of breaks! (You should be able to do a full in-game episode arc without any problems)

Flag recommendationsThe new PBR stuff makes stuff a LOT brighter than before, so maybe try ambient factor around 60?Also turn off 3d models for ships and weapons! You'll miss out on helpful gameplay info about them if you don't!

The Pretty StuffAmazing new intro movie, following in the tradition of anime parodies, and the primary source content, it's a Cruel Angel's Thesis parody. Thanks to m|m for adding ffmpeg support for maximum 1080p quality!Totally redone character art by the amazing Spoon (also its all animated, so this is also why the mod is now about a gigabyte larger). Mega thanks to niffiwan for implementing apng support and setting up all the tricky scripting functions!All out-of-mission exposition now handled through Visual Novel segments (instead of fiction viewer/command briefing/briefing). The briefings are handled this way too and are pretty coolAction packed short outro preview video for JAD2.22 after the in game credits roll

The GameplayShips slightly tweaked and rebalanced, I forget the specifics, just trust me on this oneCompletely new and redone weapons! Equip things like the all-too-familiar Prometheus S2 or rampage around with the Tempest XL or wreck everything with the MegaDoom Torpedo!Visible health bar HUD gauge added to the top of the central brackets. Player subsystems are now also invincible, because we're here to kick butt and chew bubblegum, not wait for comms to repair themselves!Some missions have been adjusted for message timing or some dialog got moved to VN scenes.'Fly Like You Want To Win' has been adjusted so the fight is longer. You've got more time to defeat the Beta Tester, but it does have more health. Overall the difficulty has decreased though.Expanded items: grab items that slowly regenerate health or give you unlimited weapon energy, or just plain make you invincible! (Behind the scenes, items are more flexible for me to place or spawn)Berserk System v2: This doesn't mean anything to you, but it makes things easier for me behind the scenes

The ExtrasEntirely reskinned interface, everything is a lot brighter and easier to read nowNew fonts to make things even easier to read!! (Thanks m|m!)There are new optional 'slice of life'/'omake' VN scenes that unlock gradually as you complete missionsNew deep 13-part lore into the 'worldbuilding' of JAD if you're into that (it's in the clubroom)

The BoringAn endless assortment of bugs introduced and fixed

JAD:XANow completely integrated with the main mod (this will make it easier to add on to for new fighters in the future)Hub has billboards to display things like ship and item stats and mission high scoresTo go to a challenge, you now just fly through the billboard, just like in your Super Mario 64sAlso has that tricky bug fixed where fighters didn't spawn again for the credits after the Endless Gauntlet Bosses are defeatedIn the Endless Gauntlet, on non-Insane difficulty, an Item Dispenser appears to give you free items to make things slightly easier

Re: RELEASE - Just Another Day Series (Updated March 11 2017!)

Before the game could try and always keep a number of fighters battling you (usually 10). On insane this got to be a little unfair and dumb. Now the spawning system checks once a minute if it needs to add more fighters or not. (Note this doesn't apply to the Endless Gauntlet!)

AI:

Insane no longer has a 99 fighter and missile targetting limit on the player. It is now 7 missiles and 5 fighters (same as Hard)

VN Script:

Fixed the error about Speed being nil if you right clicked.

Cloaking System:

HUD gauge now re-appears after quick restarting after getting blown up

Escape from High School:

Fixed typos

Get Revengeance:

You can no longer jump to the junkyard from the junkyard

Henrietta will now actually leave properly

Various Missions:

Built in messages disabled on various capital ships

Almost Anything Is Possible:

Hakase is a little more smarter and considering with respect to dragging around giant starships

Re: RELEASE - Just Another Day Series (Updated July 22 2017!)

The message box is a few pixels higher now, so people with smaller resolutions (around 720px high) can see all the choices for menus.

Journal:

Fixed bug where it wasn't releasing cfile handles on journal entries. (This, in addition to some recent headani fixes in the code, might let you play the campaign longer before the game will inevitably crash)

Campaign Map:

More graceful error handling

Forced Feeding:

Fixed some bad checkpoint stuff

The Power of Friendship:

Mission no longer assumes Befriendinator's hull is hard capped at 75% because that's not how supercap works!

Get Revengeance:

The Tenth's ships are now invincible until he latches on to them (sorry, no free ride there anymore!)

Le petit dejeuner symphonie:

The PPB Heartbreaker is now actually flyable in the mission!

Going back to the mission map after completing the mission should no longer cause a lua error

Holley's Cooking Corner:

Scoring details are now shown so you can see what you need to work on

Cake baking scoring totally revamped. You can now actually make good cakes, Brent.

(Note, that only applies to the scoring, the cake is still literally poisonous and no matter how hard Holley bakes, her friends won't trust it)